The easiest way into the whole universe, and the one I'd hand to someone who likes Star Trek or Becky Chambers. A civilian survey ship, the Dawnward, heads out to the blank edge of the map, and the thing waiting in her receiver is a four-year-old signal in Earth's own language, coming from somewhere the roads don't go yet.
Jae Wells has just got her first berth and thinks exploration is the cleanest job there is. The book is partly about her finding out it isn't.
- Amazon (Kindle, free on Kindle Unlimited)
- Read the opening and see every other store: https://fracturedcosmology.xyz/books/wide-sky/
- Free audiobook on YouTube: Part 1 · Part 2
Things I'd genuinely like to hear about:
- Did the crew work for you as a crew? I wanted them warm without being cute.
- The warning the reach's people keep repeating. Did you believe it before the crew did?
- If this was your first book of mine: where are you going next, and did the ending push you there?
Spoilers for this book are fine below. It's the book's own thread. Anything from a later book or another series, wrap it in [spoiler] tags so nobody gets ambushed.